2 ms·

It’s not about who has it worse. That completely misses the point. It’s about accurately reflecting on your personal situation and not drawing absurd conclusion

It’s not about who has it worse. That completely misses the point. It’s about accurately reflecting on your personal situation and not drawing absurd conclusions to justify a personal opinion. Let’s call this Dunning-Kruger for sympathy. If you are trying to qualify who has it worse you aren’t focused on a materially objective outcome. For example many of the people protesting in the US in the past few weeks are trying to raise awareness of systemic racism and for police accountability (different issues, by the way). Most of those people aren’t asking for your sympathy because they are looking for impactful change which isn’t found in sympathy.

catalogia 6y ago
I think there may be a miscommunication here. I read "The same absurd comparisons also come up when entitled people people try to talk about poverty when it’s clear they have never seen poverty in the US, much less in an economy where people earn less than $5 per day working 5x harder." as meaning you have no sympathy for the plight of poor people in America because people in other countries experience even more severe poverty. Seeing poverty in America is as easy as going outside and opening your eyes.
- austincheney 6y ago
  > Seeing poverty in America is as easy as going outside and opening your eyes. That so completely depends upon where you live. My big city of 900,000 people reported their highest measured homeless population ever in 2018 with a sizable jump to about 2000 people. That is tiny compared with many other similar sized cities. Seeing homeless people, like stepping over a drunkard spilled out over a sidewalk, isn’t the same as diving into the research or getting into some of the personal stories.
  - bduerst 6y ago
    Reminds me of this parable (paraphrased): A man is standing on a beach after a storm with the tide out, where there are thousands of starfish baking in the sun, slowly dying. The man is picking up the starfish one at a time, and throwing them into the ocean. A bystander is walking by, and says, "Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish and it won't make a difference." The man picks up another starfish and says, "To this one it matters," and throws it into the ocean.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    I mean... there is more to poverty than homelessness. I don't believe that anybody in America has never had the opportunity to witness poverty in America.

catalogia 6y ago

I think there may be a miscommunication here. I read "The same absurd comparisons also come up when entitled people people try to talk about poverty when it’s clear they have never seen poverty in the US, much less in an economy where people earn less than $5 per day working 5x harder." as meaning you have no sympathy for the plight of poor people in America because people in other countries experience even more severe poverty. Seeing poverty in America is as easy as going outside and opening your eyes.

austincheney 6y ago
> Seeing poverty in America is as easy as going outside and opening your eyes. That so completely depends upon where you live. My big city of 900,000 people reported their highest measured homeless population ever in 2018 with a sizable jump to about 2000 people. That is tiny compared with many other similar sized cities. Seeing homeless people, like stepping over a drunkard spilled out over a sidewalk, isn’t the same as diving into the research or getting into some of the personal stories.
- bduerst 6y ago
  Reminds me of this parable (paraphrased): A man is standing on a beach after a storm with the tide out, where there are thousands of starfish baking in the sun, slowly dying. The man is picking up the starfish one at a time, and throwing them into the ocean. A bystander is walking by, and says, "Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish and it won't make a difference." The man picks up another starfish and says, "To this one it matters," and throws it into the ocean.
- catalogia 6y ago
  I mean... there is more to poverty than homelessness. I don't believe that anybody in America has never had the opportunity to witness poverty in America.